Ipswich selectmen oppose new 40B

The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted against a newly proposed 40B development for 25 Pleasant St., at the corner of Blaisdell Terrace, at its meeting Monday night, Oct. 30.

“This is a stinker we don’t want,” Chairman William Craft said and about 50 abutters agreed.

The board also reminded the town that a plastic bag and Styrofoam ban goes into effect on Nov. 15 and accepted a $5,000 donation from Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. for insulated cooler bags for senior citizens, the food pantry and others.

Wheelabrator incinerates Ipswich trash and turns it into energy.

The 40B project, proposed by Karl Mayer, consists of eight aging-in-place condos. Two would have one bedroom and six would have two bedrooms. All the units would be handicap accessible. There are two affordable units and 12 parking spaces.

Each unit has been appraised as being worth approximately $235,000.

The 8,500 sq.-ft. lot once had a single-family house which burned down.

This is the third 40B project recently proposed for Ipswich.

One, for units off Town Farm Road, is now before the ZBA.

MassHousing is still evaluating another project John Bruni proposed for 194 rental units on 10 acres at 28 to 44 Essex Road, the former home of Bruni Farms. The design includes two, three-story apartment buildings, three four-story apartment buildings, four town houses and 20 attached, single-family residences.

According to state law, a 40B proposal does not have to follow the town’s zoning laws and comes before the ZBA. The 40B designation only applies if a town’s affordable housing stock falls below 10 percent affordable. Ipswich has 495 affordable units, or 8.2 percent of its housing stock, and needs an additional 79 affordable units to meet the state law. The affordable units can’t be priced for more than 80 percent of the area’s mediated income, which is approximately $80,000.

If the Bruni 40B proposal is allowed, that would put the town over the limit of affordable housing the town needs to stop any further 40B proposals.

Senior Planner Ethan Parsons said that MassHousing was “very mum” about the Bruni project.

In a letter from the board to the MassHousing Finance Agency, Parsons writing on behalf of the selectmen, said that the project was far too dense. And he said the proposed development wasn’t integrated with the immediate neighborhood mainly made up by single-family houses, has eight times the number of units allowed in the zoning bylaw and said there are too many parking spaces, no vegetation, and no room for outdoor recreation.

Two curb cuts, approximately 50 to 60 feet long, would lead to the displacement of street parking, Parsons writes.

At least 40 neighbors attended the meeting. They brought a petition submitted by Paul Norderg, 19 Pleasant St. At least 10 people spoke against the Pleasant St. project.

Nancy Bergner, 3 Blaisdell Terrace, said she has five children and said there are nearly 30 kids in the area. Bergner wondered about their safety with the added traffic the project would bring. It’s a “diverse neighborhood,” she said. It’s a “stand around in the street and talk neighborhood. I want to protect that.”

Marguerite Lemon, 5 Blaisdell Terrace said she had lived there for 46 years. She was against “plunking eight families on a single-family lot.”